The Collatz 3n+1 Conjecture is Unprovable
Craig Alan Feinstein
TL;DR
This paper argues that the Collatz 3n+1 Conjecture cannot be formally proven because any proof would require infinitely many lines, implying its unprovability.
Contribution
It demonstrates that the Collatz 3n+1 Conjecture is unprovable within formal systems due to the necessity of infinitely many proof lines.
Findings
Proof of unprovability due to infinite lines requirement
No finite formal proof exists for the conjecture
Implication for the limits of mathematical proof techniques
Abstract
In this paper, we show that any proof of the Collatz 3n+1 Conjecture must have an infinite number of lines; therefore, no formal proof is possible.
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsBenford’s Law and Fraud Detection · Computability, Logic, AI Algorithms · Digital Media Forensic Detection